The Defenders
by Nick1319
Summary: It's been over a year since the Human-Covenant war ended. The UNSC March to Destiny was charged with exploring the edges of what used to be Human territory. But what happens when they find something totally new to them? Will they be able to ride out the storm that they've been caught in? What new threats will the UNSC face... and will they be alone? Rated M for safety.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or AVP the rights for them belong to their rightful owners and so I hold no stake in either. This story is purely fiction for the sake of entertainment not profit.**

0600 hours, March 3, 2554 (Military calendar)/ the edge of known UNSC space before the Human Covenant war erupted.

It was quiet onboard the UNSC March to Destiny as she drifted through the endless darkness of space. What little was left of the UNSC high command had commissioned her to explore the edges of what used to be Human territory to scout out any unknown threats that might strike next.

Humanity was still weak from the war that happened over one year ago, and as such they scrambled to rebuild fleets as fast as they could to defend what little they had left after the covenant had taken so much. Their main fear they faced was another enemy appearing out of the blue like the covenant did and finally wiping out the last of Humanity.

But at least they didn't have to worry about any remnants of the covenant attacking Earth due to the fact that the Sangheili, who still had a reasonable amount ships had vowed to hunt them down for their lies that they had told them. But those battles would take place somewhere behind covenant lines where their territory was known only to them.

But as for the March to Destiny, she was charged with scouting out new worlds and hopefully making allies instead of homicidal enemies. She was a heavy class battleship outfitted with the best weapons and armaments Humanity could muster in the immediate time they had to rebuild their defenses. Her crew consisted of the most highly trained marines and ODST's left after the battle of the Ark and the best surviving bridge crew and engineering staff they could find.

Defending Earth was important of course, but she wasn't in the most immediate danger anymore. So with that settled they put together the best scouting party they thought was appropriate and sent them on their way.

She currently just came out of slipspace on the edge of a new star system that her probes had scouted a week before and found that many planets here were actually suitable for life. While initial scans showed no presence of covenant or otherwise intelligent life within the system she still moved through it gathering data for what could be the future colonies of Humanity.

* * *

"Nice view isn't it?" The bridge navigator asked his co-worker.

"Helmsly stop staring at me! You know we're supposed to be on alert right now." The woman said to him with a glare.

"Hey come on now Jennifer, what do we have to worry about? This isn't even anywhere near Covie space and look," He said tapping her screen. "No sign of any ships have passed through here." He stated happily.

"I don't suppose you forgot how easily the Covenant can temporarily mask their ships signatures and transmissions?" The captain said to him while walking onto the bridge with a distasteful look. "Just because we survived a war doesn't mean you can start breaking regulation onboard my ship."

"Yes sir!" Helmsly snapped a crisp salute then returned to his station.

Captain Darren Trent was commanding the vessel and he ran a tight ship even by UNSC standards. He commanded his bridge almost as if he was a drill sergeant, and he wouldn't tolerate any form of insubordination or lacking. He knew the importance of being strict even in a time of peace and especially in unknown space. Just because it wasn't labeled Covenant didn't mean there weren't still threats out there. But he didn't blame his navigator for momentarily acting casual, for they had just survived a war that almost killed them all and it was a miracle that they were still alive. Through everything that had happened he allowed himself a smile, a rare thing considering his past and his bridge officers took notice.

Then a wisp of smoke appeared beside him shifting and fading over itself as it settled in the air.

"Good morning Captain." The ships A.I. greeted with its usual raspy low voice.

"Report Spirit; give me everything we know so far about the system. Also, redeploy the probes to the next set of coordinates." He skipped the hello and cut straight to business.

"Right away, there seem to be three planets that can support life here and two others that can't. One I've already scanned and came up with nothing. The second I'm doing right now…" The AI stated as it commandeered one of the bridge consoles from its crew.

It would take a little while to scan the surface of a whole planet so the captain settled into his chair and began monitoring the stars. The system they were currently in had a medium size sun orbited by five other planets. One was a blue gas giant, the other was a grey rock void and lifeless, and the other three looked colonized by jungle, ice, and ocean.

Darren shifted his view from the blackness of space towards the grey planet to the left of the monitor. He noticed that the surface of the planet looked scared upon closer inspection. But he paid it no mind, if Spirit scanned it and it was uninhabitable then there was nothing there worth investigating for the time being.

* * *

Allen had just gotten out of cryo-sleep and was making his way towards the mess hall. On his way he waved to his fellow ODST's who had just climbed out of the freezer as well and noticed that they all shared smiles, something very rare for the seasoned soldiers. He let out a sigh of relief, for there was no more war. No more unexpected emergency call to arms when awoke from cryo-sleep, and no more worries.

He entered the mess hall and found a sight to see, his lifelong friend dancing atop the metal tables singing with the marines as the crewmen laughed and played music. He leaned against the wall and smile at the sight of the men enjoying their peace that they had scarified so much to obtain. When one of the lower ranking marines bumped into me by accident, instead of the usual rude attitude that the ODSTs had been known for I gave him a smile and nudged him back as he shared a laugh.

It was truly peace at last.

I walked up to my friend who couldn't stop dancing and pulled him down off the table while the marines laughed and continued.

"Hey man!" I yelled over the loud music.

"Hey! Look at this; we're celebrating our one year anniversary!" He laughed as he popped an apple into his mouth.

"I know it's hard to believe that it's really over. I keep coming out of cryo sometimes expecting to hear alarms and sirens."

"Aw you worry too much Allen." He said sliding me a tray of food.

"Well you know how it is Lanex. After everything we've been through how can you not expect a fight?" I asked him with a chuckle.

"Because after the amount of shit we've been through and had to put up with at the end of the day I know I'm still alive. As for everything else, well I try not to think too much about it." He said devouring his food.

We both ate in silence listening to the music and watching our fellow men with smiles. Lanex had always been a good friend ever since they both became ODST's together. We've been through thick and thin, literally. But we always had one another's backs; the same went for the rest of our squad. We were dependable but we never left anyone behind even at the Ark we pulled a few Sangheili out of the fray before the place blew.

After our breakfast we entered the gym. It was common to see fellow soldiers training but most of them had been in the mess partying, so they were almost alone. I got some weights and started lifting while Lanex was doing running.

It had been maybe around four or five minutes before Lanex got daring and turned the speed up to twenty six miles an hour. He was sent flying directly into me as I toppled over.

"Ugh! How many times Lanex?" I asked.

"That's gotta be about thirteen now?" He replied getting off me.

"Thirteen times I've had to tell you that you're not a Spartan! We can't run that fast dude." I said picking up the weights and placing them back on a rack.

"But I'm getting closer though! Just watch, twenty tomorrow and I'll do it just fine!"

"Idiot." I chuckled before I dragged him into the ring. "You'll never be as fast as them but at least you could train to be better."

"What's the score?" He asked putting some gloves on.

"Ten to six."

"Rounds?"

"Hmm… lets go to five." I told him before we started.

* * *

Aboard the bridge Darren had been filling out forums on his computer and getting paper work settled away, although paper had been taken out of the equation a long time ago. He had just finished mapping the system and sending a copy to the still recovering FLEETCOM when Spirit, the ships AI spoke again.

"Captain, I've found some rather odd symbols and structures on the surface of the planet below."

"Forerunner?"

"If they are then they're unlike any we've seen before." It replied.

"Very well, I'll have some men get an investigation underway." He said remembering to add it in to the report.

"Sir," The communications officer said getting his attention. "I just picked up some strange transmissions coming from somewhere on the planet." He said.

"Can you connect them to anything James?" He asked strolling over to his station.

"Not yet. They were brief, but they were there." He told him while pulling up charts of the signal and its frequency's.

"Spirit, scan again in case you missed anything. James, can you make anything out from what you've got?"

"No sir, they're not like any Covenant encrypted messages I've ever seen. So either we didn't catch the full code or these came from something totally different." He replied while feverishly typing away at his console.

Darren walked back to his seat and thought for a moment. In the event that they had found something else he was supposed to go through all the first contact scenarios that they tried with the Covenant. Then his mind raced back to all the wars and the fight they had done with them, and he ordered a full alert readiness across the ship just in case things escalated quickly.

* * *

"Ok ok you win!" Lanex said while he was beneath me.

"I keep telling you, there's no style that in existence that beats Aikido."

"Well not yet there isn't." He said struggling.

"What was that Corporal?"

"Nothing sir." He said defeated while I let him onto his feet.

We laughed for a moment before the all too familiar sounds of alarms blaring played through the ship.

"Get the team together! I'm going to find out what's going on." I yelled while racing off towards the bridge.

On my way I passed many crewmen panicking as they scrambled through the halls for their stations and marines running for the hangar. The sirens must have caught them off guard I suppose… after all, it's been a whole year since they've heard them. So I couldn't really blame them for their behavior or their fear that they were so obviously displaying in an attempt to do their duties.

I entered the bridge and saw the captain calmly sitting at his chair while the bridge crew worked neatly at their stations.

"Sir, what's the emergency?" I asked approaching him.

"The emergency is that everyone seems to have forgotten basic protocol! I brought the ship up to alert readiness and everyone's manning their battle stations as if we're under attack!" He yelled at me. It was true, we had only been brought to alert level readiness in the event we were attacked but all the crewmen hadn't heard the alarms in so long that they automatically assumed we were already under attack.

The captain sighed as he slumped back in his chair.

"Anyway, I do have a task for your team Major." He addressed me while correcting his pasture. "I need your team to investigate some ruins on the surface. Scans show that the surface isn't hazardous and that you can conduct your investigation un-harassed by the environment." He said while pulling up the coordinates for the structures.

"See if you can identify them as forerunner or not and catalog anything that you may find useful or noteworthy." He told me.

"Sir, yes sir!" I responded with a firm salute as I walked out.

* * *

In the hangar I found my team ready beside a drop pelican as our ride.

"Sir!" All of my team members cried at once as they saluted me. I explained our objectives and the details as we hauled our gear onboard the drop ship.

"So what if it is Forerunner tech? You think they're just gonna let us in?" Dan, our heavy weapons specialist asked while lifting a crate over his head.

"Hell if I know. But we have our orders." I told him while helping our medic, Lisa get some supplies onboard.

"And what if they're hostel?" Lanex, our teams second in command and recon specialist asked.

"Then we do not engage. We retreat and await further orders because the last thing we need right now is another thing that wants us dead." I told him.

"Makes sense." Roger, our teams sniper off handedly said while bringing some rations aboard in case they were going to be having an extended stay.

With all of our gear ready we launched the pelican from the hangar and were off to investigate the ruins.

* * *

Darren was running through multiple hoops with his bridge staff as they attempted to decipher the odd transmission from the planet.

"Sir," Spirit piped up from the console.

"Yes Spirit? Have you found anything?" Darren asked.

"You could say that…"

**Well guys I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of the new somewhat short story I'll be doing. And please give me some feedback on how I represented the UNSC because I feel like I may have left something out for some reason. Anyway, enjoy and there will be more soon!**


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